3.4K
Downloads
66
Episodes
This podcast tells the story of a year of an English teacher in China, working in an international school in Changshu, Jiangsu. It‘s also full of history and culture. We‘ll go back to the imperial days, the revolutionary days, the days of triumph and the days of humiliation. Mostly though, it‘s modern China that I‘ll focus on, as it is the most relevant to understanding China now. China is super fascinating, and it‘s also probably the most important country in the world to understand right now, so this is my contribution to that. It‘s not a chronological history; instead, it kind of matches up to the things that were occuring in my roller-coaster of a year living in Changshu. I‘ve changed the names of the people I that I met when I was in China, except Jess of course. You‘ll meet Jess later. She‘s awesome. Blog: SMKYpodcast.blogspot.com
Episodes
Wednesday Mar 30, 2022
Wednesday Mar 30, 2022
I took a weekend trip to Wuxi, the most notable part of the trip being the discomfort of the transportation and the nice fella who worked in Wuxi's youth hostel. With hushed voices, we covered a number of controversial topics.
Twitter: @SMKYpodcast
Wednesday Apr 06, 2022
Wednesday Apr 06, 2022
I'm grateful to founding editor of @NewBloomMag Brian Hioe for joining me for a chat about the political situation in Taiwan, mainly in regards to the Sunflower Movement, the relationship with China, chances of war...
Twit @SMKYpodcast
Blog https://smkypodcast.blogspot.com
New Bloom https://newbloommag.net
Brian @brianhioe
Monday Apr 11, 2022
Monday Apr 11, 2022
Shanghai's been locked down for weeks now, and China's reputation for dealing well with Covid is being undermined as cases continue to rise. Not only that, but hospital appointments are getting missed and people are running out of food. I chat with one of those on the inside.
Wednesday Apr 20, 2022
Wednesday Apr 20, 2022
Scandals and troublemakers in China, and how the authorities react. Featuring appearances from the Gang of Four, Jiang Qing, Chen Mengjia with his Chinese characters, Zhang Zhan exposing Covid-19 failures and Tiananmen Square.
Wednesday Apr 27, 2022
Wednesday Apr 27, 2022
The concluding part of this idiom-inspired doublepod about human rights in China. We start at Tiananmen Square, and weave through the current Shanghai lockdown to troubled, outspoken businessmen and recent events in Hong Kong. And of course, the saint of human rights in China, Liu Xiaobo, makes an appearance.
Thursday May 05, 2022
Thursday May 05, 2022
This is the first of two chats. We talk about censorship and foreign companies pulling out of China, whether "Taiwan is China!", whether Trump was good or bad for China, the people's trust of the CCP in relation to Covid, and cultural differences in general.
Thursday May 12, 2022
Thursday May 12, 2022
I arranged for one more chat with Spring, and decided not to play so nice this time.
(This was recorded before the British government came up with its "send asylum seekers to Rwanda" policy. This is possibly relevant in the first half of this conversation, when I'm claiming that we respect human rights. Oops.)
Friday May 20, 2022
Friday May 20, 2022
Back at the Cradle of Elites, there's a newcomer in town. Jess is from the UK, and we find ourselves in a temple. From there, it's just a hop, skip and a jump to a discussion about religion and spirituality in China, from the ancient belief systems to the modern cults.
Twitter @SMKYpodcast
Friday May 27, 2022
Friday May 27, 2022
There's a bit in most movies called the low point, not long before the end, where it seems that all is lost for the main character. We're not quite at the end of this tale, but in November, all was lost.
Friday Jun 03, 2022
Friday Jun 03, 2022
Like any teacher worth his salt, I attempted to combat the onset of an early winter depression by getting hopelessly drunk and trying to play a piano song to a group of drunks in a bar in the city.
And if that doesn't work, there's always Roland Emmerich movies and bamboo carpentry. One of these things must provide a cure surely.
Twitter @SMKYpodcast